SEO tips for boosting your Google ranking in 2020

Small to medium business owners are often expected to wear many different hats. From SEO consultant, content creator and IT manager to strategic planner and sales representative to name a few.

Whilst it’s no easy feat, SEO (or Search Engine Optimisation) is a process every business owner should ensure they are following on their website in order to boost their ranking in the Google Search Engine Results Pages (or SERPs). In other words, when buyers search for your brand/product/service online, they are more easily able to find you.

Search Engine Optimisation is an ongoing process made up of actions which you can complete yourself. Not everyone will have an in-house team of specialists or the budget to spend on SEO experts, so we’ve listed our bitesize takeaway tips below to get you started.

If you’ve got more time and want to further your knowledge to become the ultimate expert in SEO, check out another 7 quick and free SEO hacks for SMBs.

Why do I need SEO for my website?

The simple answer is so you can improve your site’s ranking in SERP. Beyond that you will boost your web traffic, which ultimately leads to more conversion opportunities.

How do you optimise your website and boost traffic?

Our DIY tips for SEO doesn’t include the ultimate list of SEO tips for the many ranking factors that Google uses in their algorithm, but it lists those we consider to be critical and often missed which will instantly give you an advantage over your competitors.

Tip #1 - Image optimisation

Every image on your website should have the ALT tag information filled in correctly which sends relevancy signals to search engines. Search engines work out what your image shows from its file name, description, title and caption.

That’s right, no more naming your image ‘Untitled 1’. You may as well order your burger with nothing between the buns. Yes, it can be time consuming but once you get into the habit of naming your images with meaning, you’ll soon speed up the process.

Adding ALT text benefits people with vision impairments too as some may use screen readers if they’re having trouble distinguishing images.

Image optimisation also includes optimising the size and format of your image. Is it too big for your page? Consider whether it will slow down the loading time and result in a poor bounce rate (more on this later).

So practice writing SEO-friendly ALT text to accurately describe your images. Remember to write for humans first and search bots second - no keyword stuffing. And get to know the difference between a PNG and JPEG.

Tip #2 - Content recency

SEO best practice is to give content a refresh every so often by making significant edits (adding and/or removing paragraphs of copy rather than rearranging words or correcting typos).

Regular page updates are favoured, and of course recently published content is key, especially for time-sensitive searches.

Tip #3 - Site speed

This is a big one. There’s not much else that will kill your website quicker than a slow site speed.

Not only will those who eventually land on your site become frustrated, lose their patience and interest before clicking the big red ‘X’, but most users will struggle to find you organically through SERPs in the first instance. This is because Google considers site speed to be a critical factor and will mark you down for being sluggish!

According to a Google study, 53 per cent of mobile site visitors will abandon a web page if it takes more than three seconds to loads. So remove anything that slows you down. We’ve discussed how to increase your Google Page Speed Insights score previously.

Tip #4 - Outbound link quality

Not sure if you’ve heard, but links are kind of a big deal when it comes to SEO best practices.

A study shows that linking out to sites with a higher authority will work in your favour and send all the right trust signals to Google.

Tip #5 - Bullets and numbered lists

Content is considered more user friendly when it’s broken down into bite size pieces. Not only can the reader digest the information easier, but Google prefers this kind of content layout too.

Making use of bullet points and numbered lists is a good way to do this. Headings will also help to break content up - this is also a good place to try and include your keyword(s).

After all, keywords are the connection between what people are searching for and the content you are providing to them.

Tip #6 - Terms of service and privacy policy pages

A Terms of Service page helps you set out the rules and guidelines that visitors of your website must agree to in order to use the site.

A Privacy Policy is a legal agreement that explains what personal data you’ll gather from your website traffic, and how you’ll use it.

It’s as simple as that. Having both of these pages on your website sends good vibes to Google letting them know your site is trustworthy and should be shown to the world.

Content is king

When working on SEO, it’s important to remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your site won’t jump to the top of SERP overnight. It’s a long, slow and ongoing process, but if done well the results can be exponential.